Q&A with Steven Bartlett
Talk Overview:
Views, likes, retweets, shares, comments; are all ways in which we engage online. This is measurable, this is the industry norm, but what if there’s something more valuable and meaningful that determines the success of capturing an audience? I’m going to discuss how reaching a deeper level with your audience, by making people genuinely ‘feel’ something is the real driving force behind engagement.
Why did you agree to speak at WXG?
WXG is shaping up to be a fantastic event with a large range of speakers covering highly relevant topics in the industry. It’s good for us to situate ourselves amongst other disrupters and creatives. Ultimately events like this are responsible for shaping the future of the national creative and tech industries.
How did you get into your field?
After dropping out of University after one lecture, I set about building a platform that would help bring all the stakeholders in the student world together, this became my first venture, Wallpark. After building the platform, this left us with a big challenge, how do you actually get students onto your website? From this starting point, we strayed away from ‘traditional’ methods of marketing and focused our efforts on Social Media. We tapped into large student communities online in ways we knew would resonate, eventually driving millions of people a month to Wallpark. This was in essence the very beginning of a long journey in building and leveraging large social media communities.
Who is your inspiration in the industry?
Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.
What advice would you give to someone new to the industry?
Sell your story, not only to potential clients, but also to your team. Getting the right team around you will be your most important asset. At Social Chain, we brought together some of the most highly skilled kids in the industry. But we had to sell the story to them first. When your team care about something enough, they will produce great work, which will translate into investors and clients taking notice.
Steven will be talking at WXG on the 23rd March, 2017
